NSFT showcases its improvement journey at its AGM
Teams from across Norfolk and Suffolk NHS Foundation Trust (NSFT) showcased their services at a special event on Thursday 9 October.
Service users, families, carers and the public spent time visiting 25 stalls at NSFT's marketplace, in the atrium of The Forum in Norwich, which coincided with the Trust's AGM.
Visitors got to learn more about a number of the Trust's mental health teams including perinatal, older people's services, veterans, crisis and 111 services, and women's health.
There was also the opportunity to meet some of the teams behind the Trust's key change programmes which have been central to NSFT's improvement journey, such as Listening into Action, Clinical Transformation, localities and Race Equity.
Highlights of the day were the official launch of the Carers Charter, which outlines the organisations commitment to working with, supporting and valuing carers of service users, and the introduction of the Recovery College's Winter Connection Challenge. The Winter Connection Challenge aims to create connections and combat loneliness with the simple gesture of designing and sending a postcard to someone.
Visitors were also treated to music from the Trust's music for dementia project and the service-user led Black Dog Music Project.
The Trust welcomed partner organisations to join the marketplace, including Carers Voice Norfolk and Waveney, Norfolk and Waveney Talking Therapies, and Wellbeing Suffolk.
Wellbeing Suffolk NHS Talking Therapies' stand highlighted the support they provide and the ease of access to their services and was designed to spark conversation and raise awareness. Anyone visiting the stand were invited to contribute to the Wellbeing Love Chain, sharing what they were grateful for, helping to create a colourful visual of positivity, thoughtful reflection and inspiration.
The Annual General Meeting itself drew in more than 70 people who heard presentations from executive members, as well as Chair Zoë Billingham and Chief Executive Caroline Donovan.
Zoë Billingham praised staff for their commitment to mental health services and said: "It has been wonderful to see so many fabulous teams showcasing just a handful of the services and support provided by Norfolk and Suffolk NHS Foundation Trust. It's a real pleasure seeing our staff together; it is their creativity and commitment that defines our Trust and this is reflected in the fact that our staff have been shortlisted for 13 national awards this year."
Meanwhile Caroline Donovan reflected on the Trust's improvements over the past year. She said: "This has been a fantastic year of progress for NSFT and a big thank you to our teams, our partners, service users, carers, and families, for all the work you have done.
"We've delivered two of our most positive CQC reports in a decade and I'm delighted we now have a Service User and Carer Council that is supporting all of our services, with plans to develop a council in each of our five localities. Importantly we've made access to our services much easier by reducing wait times and we've received really positive feedback that it's improving from service users and carers. We've also opened our new Rivers Centre, a wonderful new inpatient unit providing high quality inpatient accommodation.
"Whilst these improvements give us a lot to be proud of, we are not complacent and know that there is still much work to do to transform our services to ensure we deliver safer, kinder and better care."